Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, Acts 4:12.
My wife and I hope that our Blog may be used as a tool to promote the gospel of Jesus Christ. We desire to minister His message of salvation to anyone who is willing to hear us. We believe His free gift of salvation is available to all, and we invite whosoever will to come and take freely of the water of life, Revelation 22:17.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

The Holy Spirit, Part 5

Moving ahead, we reach the book of 1st Samuel. Samuel is
an old man, and his sons turned out to be wicked. Because of this, and due to
their constant disobedience toward God, the people demanded a human king to be
their leader, rejecting God. God chose Saul, son of Kish to be Israel’s first
king, and we find the Holy Spirit’s activity in the lives of His saints at the
onset of Saul’s career as king. “The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you
(Saul), and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man,”
1st Samuel 10:6. And that was exactly how it happened; Samuel’s prophetic word
to Saul was quickly fulfilled.

“When [Saul] came there to the hill, there
was a group of prophets to meet him; then the Spirit of God came upon him, and
he prophesied among them,” 1st Samuel 10:10. Josephus, the famous first
century Jewish historian, refers to these bouts as “divine furies” and the
like. Though Josephus lived after Christ’s time and was at least a contemporary
of Peter and Paul, he clearly did not comprehend that it was a Person who
visited Saul; not a mood or thing. For further evidence that this is so let us
briefly look at 1st Samuel 16:14. We read “But the Spirit of the Lord departed from
Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him.” The
distressing spirit (aka demonic possession) could not come upon Saul (see 1st
Samuel 16:15-16) until the Holy Spirit departed. This was not a change of
moods; it was a change of leadership and direction; God gave Saul a spirit more
suited to the man’s intentions and desires. This is why demonic possession
cannot occur for a Christian. The Holy Spirit does not merely come upon us to
empower us, He indwells us and seals us as a promise of the future redemption
of our spirit, soul, and body, 2nd Corinthians 1:22; 5:5, Ephesians 1:13-14.
More on this as we reach the New Testament.

When Saul was under the direction and inspiration of the
Holy Spirit he was indeed “another man.” The Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul
when terrible news concerning his fellow Jews reached his ears and wrath was
the result, 1st Samuel 11:6. “He sent Me after glory, to the nations which
plunder [Israel]; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye,”
Zechariah 2:8. This verse, among others in the Bible clearly teaches that anger
is not a sin. What we become angry about, and how we conduct ourselves while we
are angry, determines whether or not it is sinful behavior. I write these words
as a condemned man; for I know that sometimes I lose my temper and behave very
carnally. But it is written, “Be angry, and do not sin,” Psalm
4:4; Ephesians 4:26. Here we have the Holy Spirit’s righteous anger for His
people alive in Saul. Chapter 11 also depicts perhaps the only task God set
Saul to that he accomplished with one hundred percent obedience, so that the
enemy was wholly defeated and Saul’s title as king completely accepted among
the Jews.

The next time we find the Holy Spirit at work is at the
anointing of David as Israel’s second king. Saul was the king the people
thought they wanted. David was the king after God’s own heart, 1st Samuel 16:7,
12. We read in 1st Samuel 16:13: “Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him
in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from
that day forward.” Isaiah, the Hebrew prophet who lived 400 plus years
after David’s day wrote, “Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and
your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you—the sure
mercies of David,” Isaiah 55:3. Nathan the prophet adds “When
your (David’s) days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up
your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his
kingdom…My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I
removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established
forever before you (implying David shall exist to see it, and partake even).
Your throne shall be established forever,” 2nd Samuel 7:12, 15-16.
Finally we read, “David…having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive
the promise, God having provided something better for us (in the church
age)that they should not be made perfect apart from us,” Hebrews 11:32,
39-40. I deviated for the simple sake of answering a horrendous exposition of
Acts chapter 2 where one professing Christian taught that David was in Hell
because the resurrection passage quoted from Psalm 16 was being applied to
Christ, not David. He was teaching that David forfeit his salvation and
therefore eternal security was a false teaching. Yet the passages above
indicate anything but this fallacious, dangerous, and infantile teaching.
Though the Holy Spirit now permanently dwells in His saints, David is every bit
as saved as we are. As David himself was inspired and led to write by the Holy
Spirit, “Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will
rest in hope,” Psalm 16:9. David’s physical death and the deterioration
of his body have nothing to do with where his spirit went after death. Psalm
16:10 applies directly to Jesus in the context of Acts 2:25-31. But it also
applies in general to every saint from Abel onward.

1 comment:

At least the world recognizes a relationship between the spirit and the attitude, although they tend to consider them as the same thing. Many who claim to be Christians do not understand that the leading spirit causes the the attitude,ie. that the attitude is the fruit of the spirit, whether the holy Spirit or a Satanic spirit. The attitude we exhibit indicates what spirit is directing our lives. While a Christian cannot be demon possessed, literally to be enslaved to Satan, he can voluntarily follow Satan's direction.